Healthy forests don't need large burns
The recent news story on prescribed burning of our national forests stated that "forest fires that [historically ] occurred every three to five years maintained the forest's health, they say."In fact, the research on pre-settlement fire occurrences shows that large-scale burns were very infrequent prior to man's intervention. Fires ignited by nature were small and infrequent. When the Native Americans and European immigrants began to use fire to clear land, the fires they set were usually limited to the fields and woodlands adjacent to their settlements. Airplanes and flammable chemicals now enable the U. S. Forest Service to burn thousands of acres in a single day. The effects from these burns to wildlife, particularly reptiles, amphibians and bats, are poorly understood. The effects from smoke are quite harmful to people, causing increases in asthma and cardiac-related attacks. Forest burning is also a major contributor to global warming. Land managers argue that burning improves forest health. Perhaps that is because large areas of our national forests have been overharvested, leaving weak trees, scrub and stump sprouts. Forests that are managed responsibly using singletree selection do not require fire for forest health. This has been proven for over 50 years on the Pioneer Forest in Missouri. The rush to burn our forests is fueled with our tax dollars. Fire is just a convenient way to cover up the past and present exploitation of our natural resources on public lands.
SHAWN PORTER / Parthenon
Save a horse, race a cow
I'm in total agreement with the crackpots who want to prevent the inhumane racing of beautiful animals bred for speed with jockeys who must half-starve themselves to sit atop these magnificent animals. I have a solution: cow racing. Cows are not as beautiful or fast as horses but are much more sturdy and seldom would injure themselves in a race. The track would have to be shorter and no grazing would be allowed. Cow racing would definitely be more humane than what we do with them now. We castrate them, fatten them, slaughter them and then we eat them.
JACK McKINNEY / Hot Springs Village
Candidates too young
Can you relate to a moment when you should be irritated, but the situation is simply too unfortunate for irritation ? Such is the case with the House District 64 Republican race between "young"and "younger."
Is the Northwest Arkansas Republican Party so devoid of leadership and ideas that it puts forward a relative of John Boozman and a neophyte who has scarcely lived, let alone understands the complexities surrounding welfare or immigration ? Who would've thought that Jim Holt would've been so influential in showing so many young Republicans the path to political success. Oops, I almost forgot. Holt lost his bid [for lieutenant governor ]. Perhaps they should take note: Voters are turned off by mean-spirited political pandering.
Here's some advice for this young man with scarcely two years' worth of adultlife experience: Give yourself enough time to gain valuable life experience. Carefully consider what you advocate and then ask to represent us. If there ever was a person who should have compassion and understanding, it's this young man, who admittedly was fed and sheltered by the taxpayers. Amazingly, he speaks of ending these programs for the poor. Before he asks us to support him again with our tax dollars, perhaps he can pay a few tax bills to cover those expenses that we "liberals"incurred on his behalf. But most important, [he needs to ] learn the meaning of "pay it forward."Regarding the young Boozman relative, I know plenty of humanitarian organizations in need of volunteers. Should I have them call her ?
JIM MIRANDA / Bella Vista
Criticism was out of line
Recently on the first page of the Arkansas section was the story about record tax receipts showing how efficient the state is at skinning its flock of cats. On the back page was a tiny story about the governor's being upset about record profits of the oil companies. This is the same governor who [persuaded the Legislature to ] enact an expanded tax on the gas industry and now is looking to see how he can grab the lawful profits of commerce. Now for every penny the oil companies make, the tax collector gets two. How dare the oil companies make a profit ? Just doesn't seem right. Why, they should sell that jar of perfume and give it to the poor.
DONALD CARVER / Little Rock
Education takes hold
I have been a security guard at Cabot High School for six years. Several years ago a boy graduated who had given me discipline problems. In the last semester of his senior year, I found out that he was the one who had squirted mustard on the back of my leather coat. I had the assistant principal send the $ 8 bill to his home. Nothing ever came of it.
His dad picked him up each day after school. The dad was as rough and tough as the boy tried to be. On my way to crossing guard duty, I struck up an acquaintance with the dad. Finally, I told about the mustard and my cleaning bill. The dad got angry and handed me $ 8 and said the son was in trouble. Several weeks ago, the dad looked me up at the high school. He asked if I remembered him. I said of course and shook hands. He said his son had become a fine young man since he finished with his military training and had asked him to look up Mr. Davis. His son gave him $ 8 and asked him to apologize to me. I was happy but didn't get tears in my eyes until he told me his son had left for Iraq yesterday. Our superintendent was the high school principal while the boy was a student. He remembered the boy and I told him the above story. The superintendent said," See, Mr. Davis, success like that is what education is all about."
GEORGE DAVIS / Cabot
Drive with more caution
I'm sure that someone at one time or another has been cut off by a reckless driver with no regard for anyone's safety but his own. It's happened to me plenty of times even though I'm not on the road very often. For example, when someone is waiting to enter a highway and you're heading right toward him, that driver is too impatient to wait and darts out in front of you, causing you to slam on the brakes. The vehicle I drove a couple weeks ago doesn't have an ABS system, so that put me at risk for locking up and skidding out of control, but I didn't. Speeding is something else that some seem to have the hots for. Going over the yellow line is another factor. Why do people like this do stuff like that ? They just want to save a few seconds of their time just to get to their destination that's less than two or three miles away. It almost seems like the police don't patrol the streets very often, doesn't it ? That's only because some spend their time out of town in the middle of nowhere and they can't respond in time. Then there are those who are in the right places, just at the wrong time. That's why we need more people to join the force and make the streets safer. All in all, don't be aggressive on the road. It could get you a $ 500 ticket, you could be sent to jail, or both.
TIM KROGEN / Batesville
Feeback : Put different Bush in charge
After watching first lady Laura Bush talk about the Burma problem, I got a wonderful ideal: Kick G. W. out and put the first lady in his place. I do believe she could do a better job.
BILL RADER / Hardy
Hunger nothing new
Cartoonist John Deering managed to annoy me thrice on May 7. "Strange Brew"with the weak Rush Limbaugh guffaw of liberals listen to NPR was only slightly annoying. "Zack Hill"would have just been a tired old gag about cafeteria food being bad due to the lazy, cigar-smoking leftoverserving cook, but Deering's editorial cartoon for the day putting blame for world hunger on environmentalists made it annoying in its irony. Deering isn't the first cartoonist to suddenly become concerned about the starving masses now that environmentalists can be damned for it. Roger Harvell and Michael Ramirez were quick to strike out against biofuels and those darn liberals concerned with the environment. The problem with that argument is that world hunger has been going on for centuries, and not for a lack of food in the world. It continues not because we spend money on the space program or eat too much meat, but because we apparently want it to continue. The starving Third World nations inspire the others to work cheap, which keeps us in cheap clothes and keeps the wealthy not only rich but powerful. I imagine $ 300 billion would have gone a long way to ending world poverty, but instead we've used it to get Iraqis to kill each other. How about a funny cartoon about that ?
CONE TURNER / Fayetteville
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